Like many good Seniors, my wife and I are going through our “stuff” with the intention of de-cluttering and downsizing. We are sending a lot of “stuff” and “things” that we will never use again, or that have outlived their usefulness, to some of the many charities that “pick-up”: AMVETS, Purple Heart, etc.
We found a lot of archived papers and old records wrapped in rubber bands. Papers, old 3.5 inch floppy discs (remember those?), old electronic equipment power cords are examples; a lot of things that haven’t been used or even looked at for ages, all wrapped many moons ago with rubber bands to hold them together.
Guess what? When we pulled on the rubber bands, in most cases, they snapped, broke, or in some cases, were stuck to whatever they were holding together. They had lost their flexibility and elasticity over time.
I thought, “what a perfect metaphor for people who don’t move, who’s bodies aren’t exercised.” When you stretch a rubber band, you are using it like a muscle. You are expanding and contracting it just like a muscle. And when it’s not used or is old, it atrophies like unused muscle, or becomes brittle like bones that haven’t been stressed.
Here’s a similar metaphor.
Airplanes are made to fly. When they fly, they will last forever (as long as they are maintained). They are built to fly even when they get really old. And if they don’t fly, they atrophy just like people. Their parts rust out just like your joints when you don’t move them.
The military has a partial cure for this. You know how retired, older people often move to Arizona when they retire, because of the dry climate? They don’t rust out and atrophy as quickly. Well, when the military retires old airplanes, they send them to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in hot, dry, Tucson, Arizona to keep them from rusting out. If they ever need them again, they are much easier to refurbish to flyable condition, even though they may not have been used for a long, long time. I flew many retiring Marine Corps helicopters from Norfolk, Virginia to the “aircraft boneyard” in Tucson. I also flew a few from Tucson to San Diego for refurbishing and then from San Diego back to Norfolk as those old flying machines were needed back in service. Oh, how I miss those days of flying across our beautiful country at 500 to 1000 feet above the ground. What a way to see the beauty that is America.
People are much the same. If we don’t move, we atrophy. We get weak and brittle. We break down from lack of use.
And, oh yes, rubber bands can snap from overuse, too. Pull too hard, foo far, or too suddenly, and they snap, just like we as humans. Make too many wild maneuvers in an airplane and the wings will buckle if overstressed. But rubber bands are made to stretch, and airplanes are designed and built to be heavily stressed. And the human body will take a lot of overuse and abuse before it gets to the point where it can’t recover.
So like rubber bands and old airplanes, we older humans must continue to “use it or lose it” if we want to avoid the atrophy and brittleness and “rust” that comes with a sedentary lifestyle. Unless we live in Tucson. lol.
At some point even well used rubber bands and airplanes finally wear out. So will we. But as Theodore Roosevelt once said: “I’d rather wear out than rust out.” Well said, Teddy.
Thank you for reading.